A Quick Guide to Autodesk Inventor 3D PDF's

The brand new Inventor annotate tab means that creating and dimensioning 3D PDF’s from either part or assembly files is now simple. Dimensions, symbols and notes can be placed on to the 3D model and snapped to a plane by holding down the shift key and selecting a face or plane on the model.

Dimensions and notes have the option to follow ASME, ISO and DIN standards and can either be left to the automatic scale or be manually scaled to suit the size of the model. The dimensions are associative so if the model parameters change, the dimensions will update accordingly as long as the reference point is not lost.

Setting up view representations in the model will enable you to publish views in the PDF, and also allows for easy navigation to those views. Section views saved into view representations will also be available in the 3D PDF. The design representations can be selected in the create Export 3D PDF dialog. Part files already have isometric, front, top and right views saved by default, but assembly views will need to be added from scratch.

The PDF template doesn’t change automatically for part or assembly so users must always check that the appropriate template is selected. Any relevant metadata can be added from the model's iproperties, and visual quality for the PDF geometry can be set manually. STEP files can also be generated to accompany the PDF if a user wishes to create a featureless CAD file.

PDF’s created using the part template will display the geometry, with the view representations lined up at the bottom. The assembly template creates a PDF with a parts list on it, and this has controls for altering the visibility of parts.

Note that 3D PDF’s should be opened in Adobe Acrobat reader or any other PDF reader that is 3D PDF compatible, but most web browser based PDF readers won’t work for 3D.